Dr Vanessa Ferreira is a senior people-centric researcher at FCT NOVA University, and a lobbyist representing rare disease patients within patient organizations such as EURORDIS, or European Reference Networks. Dr Ferreira is in a unique position to integrate patient groups’ insights since the conception of projects thanks to the use of different co-creation methodologies. For 11 years she has led functions across different pharmaceutical companies responsible for patient advocacy in Europe and related countries. Her single goal was to accelerate orphan medicines development across departments and countries. Dr Ferreira has been deputy at the Health Parliament Portugal and participated in developing political solutions around the topic dedicated to the patient at the centre of decisions on the future of health in Portugal. Dr Ferreira has served several national and European rare disease patient organizations and helped eliminate key challenges faced by rare disease patient groups: (1) by establishing an international patient driven network for research and orphan drug development, (2) by creating the World Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) Awareness Day, and (3) by facilitating community-building and exchanges through the organisation of international and national conferences for rare diseases. Dr Ferreira holds a PhD (Sc.D.) in Cell and Developmental Biology and an International MBA from IAE de Paris, Sorbonne Graduate Business School.